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Will the iPad Kill PowerPoint?

Mon, 11/26/2012 - 00:00

Author:

Sam Gaddis

Let’s be honest: we’ve all endured a “death by PowerPoint” sales pitch and prefer a dialogue over a monologue any day. Would you shed a tear at PowerPoint’s imaginary funeral? Would you miss the days of creating slide builds over building relationships? Yeah, me neither.

Consider that sales teams across the globe are already ditching PowerPoint. PCs are being displaced by a dizzying array of mobile devices, and sales teams have adopted tablets faster than any other department. Especially when tablets are equipped with sales applications that provide real-time access to marketing, sales and product data, customizable leave behinds, and valuable analytics and reporting, they can easily replace laptops, drive deeper engagement, and improve deal outcomes.

Given this, it’s no surprise tablet sales to businesses reached $29.4 billion last year, and are expected to grow by more than 50 percent a year through 2015, according to Gartner. Make no mistake, tablets are being adopted at such a rapid rate that using PCs, pitch books or PowerPoint in sales meetings are already becoming outdated practices.

Early adopters gain competitive advantage

Whether they’re using tablets to access sales infrastructure assets such as CRM applications or simply deliver a more interactive product demonstration, early adopters are redefining the selling experience and seeing significant returns on their mobile investments.

Custom luxury menswear company J. Hilburn increased average order size by 67 percent in one month after launching a custom mobile sales enablement solution that allowed style advisors to configure and order clothing for their clients on iPads in the field. Why? Customers and salespeople love using them. For buyers, iPads provide a more visual, intuitive buying experience, while at the same time salespeople find the devices much easier to use and more effective than lugging around laptops.

Still not convinced? More than 60 percent of organizations have seen salespeople bring their own tablets to work when corporate does not supply them.

Sam Gaddis is Chief Marketing Officer of Mutual Mobile, a company that creates rich user experiences that reinvent how businesses engage the world through mobile. This article is part of the Sales & Marketing Management cover feature about the importance of equipping your teams with the latest high-tech tools. You can read the rest of that editorial package here: http://pubs.royle.com/publication?i=135223